Why Being Good at Math Matters for Your Career?

Mathematics is undoubtedly one of the most important subjects having far reaching implications over different areas of day to day life. Mathematics is just not a subject; it is about logical analysis and thinking. As Mathematician John Allen Paulos puts it,

“As a mathematician, I’m often challenged to come up with compelling reasons to study mathematics. If the questioner is serious, I reply that there are three reasons or, more accurately, three broad classes of reasons to study mathematics. Only the first and most basic class is practical. It pertains to job skills and the needs of science and technology. The second concerns the understandings that are essential to an informed and effective citizenry. The last class of reasons involves considerations of curiosity, beauty, playfulness, perhaps even transcendence and wisdom.”

A student of mathematics has plenty of advantages over others:

He is eligible for many high paying technical positions

He is eligible for science, engineering and research jobs that most individuals cannot even dream of

A more refined problem-solving ability and insight that helps in workplace and knowledge domains

According to NYU psychology professor Clancy Blair, math makes you smarter and more disciplined. Calculations have a positive effect on the pre-frontal cortex part of the brain which is associated with executive functioning. This basically means improved problem-solving skills, better reasoning and self-regulate which translates to a person’s ability to earn more money and form long-term relationships.

Historical importance of studying math can be derived from this statement of Plato, the famous Greek philosopher and mathematician, “Even the dull, if they have had an arithmetical training, although they may derive no other advantage from it, always become much quicker than they would otherwise have been.”

Why you should choose math?

Although a lot of students consider math as hard and boring, the truth is that math can really help you make a better person and consequently assist your career to grow. Here are some ways in which choosing math will help you:

Math will make you smarter: Just like training helps develop endurance and strength for sports; math will end up developing critical analytics and logical skills without which you cannot become a star or excel at your profession. You can earn a degree in mathematics. If you’re not convinced, read what you can do with a degree in mathematics?

Math will help you end up with more money: You might argue that all the money is either with the Hollywood stars or the soccer stars. However, these are a fraction of the entire percentage of population and most of them have a limited shelf life. Then what? If you skip your day dreaming sessions about becoming the next star celebrity and do your homework well chances are you can go to a well ranked university and secure a respectable job that will pay you handsomely throughout your life. Most of all, you can enjoy your life on your own terms, away from the prying public eyes, and you can earn much more than what pop singers make, may be not right away but certainly over a lifetime. Learn about application of Mathematics Theories in Financial Markets

Math will help you lose less money: Another way of ending up with more money is to lose less of it and math can help you with that. Most of the scams and frauds rely on the naivety and ignorance of individuals who, without doing the math throw hordes of their money at such schemes. With some knowledge of numbers and little bit of statistics and interest calculations, you can easily catch the economic lies and deception used by these fraudsters.

Math will make you a global citizen: A global citizen is one who is ready for interaction, communication and competition with everyone from around the world. Math helps build that confidence, skills and ground where you can compete with anyone, irrespective of their country, caste or religion. The knowledge of math is one which makes you viable all over the world not just in your home country. Isn’t that cool?

Math will open up more doors then you can imagine: By not choosing math at high school will close many interesting options and career doors on your face. Although you might think that these career paths do not interest you, but unless you have tried it, there is no sure shot way of knowing it. Who wouldn’t want to be an astronaut or have a cool title such as astrophysicist?

Math will help you enhance the creativity: Although most think that math only helps develop logical or analytical aptitude, but in realty math can be a highly creative force if you only know how to combine its power with the knowledge of other subjects that you have.

With staunch evidence in favor of math as a life enhancing force, it is imperative that you start learning it right away. To increase your knowledge of math or numerical ability you should consider taking aptitude tests. These tests not only tell you where you stand but also point out the weak areas and the scope of improvement.